Hawaiian kids' crafts are a perfect activity for children to enjoy during beach vacations, birthday parties or quiet winter afternoons. Nothing chases the blahs away and inspires fun more than a carefree tropical paradise, such as Hawaii. Whether you can get there yourself or not, the following crafts can help to bring a little sunshine to your day, no matter where you may find yourself.
Leis
Leis are the famous brightly colored flower necklaces often offered to guests of Hawaii as they step out of their planes and take their first steps onto the island. Inspire your children to imagine they are tourists of this magical land by showing them make their very own leis out of construction paper, string and macaroni. Begin by tracing flower outlines onto brightly colored construction paper. Reds, yellows, oranges and pinks make great tropical flower colors. If you do not have construction paper, the kids can always color flowers on white paper and cut them out. Have the children cut out the flowers and punch holes into the center of them. The flowers can be strung onto strong string or yarn, alternating with pieces of macaroni to give the flowers the appropriate spacing. Once the leis are strung, knotting the loose ends will make them ready to wear.
Grass Skirts
What could possibly go better with leis than grass skirts? Inspire the kids to have fun making up their own Hawaiian dances by completing their outfits with Hawaiian style skirts. You will need a piece of brown paper that is 12 to 24 inches deep and at least 6 inches longer than your child's waist measurement. Brown paper bags or utility brown paper work very well for this. If the paper you are using is a bit too short, you can always staple it together with other pieces to achieve the right length. Leaving a 2- to 3-inch uncut waistband along the top of the skirt, cut fringe all the way around. A good fringe should be less than 1inch wide. Once fringe is cut, use stick-on Velcro to secure the grass skirt onto your child's body.
Shell Picture Frames
When the kids have exhausted their energy dancing around in their Hawaiian outfits, sit them down to make some tropical picture frames. Provide plain frames, shells in a variety of sizes, brightly colored paints and supervised use of a hot glue gun. The kids can paint their shells to add personality and then use the hot glue gun to attach them to their frames. Once the completed frames have dried, they are the perfect place to display photos of the hula dancing fun from earlier in the day.
Hawaiian Memory
Memory is a childhood matching game using cards with pictures on them. Provide plain index cards, markers or crayons and photos of Hawaii for inspiration. Each child can create three or four different designs on index cards. Each design will need to be drawn twice so that there is a match in the deck of cards for each and every picture. The kids can draw leis, grass skirts, shells, pineapples, coconuts, beach balls, flip-flops and more. Once the cards are completed, shuffle the deck, set out the cards with the pictures facing the table and let the kids have fun trying to find matching cards.
Tags: brightly colored, construction paper, kids have, cards with, cards with pictures, deck cards, grass skirts